Crowd pleaser: Lance Franklin poses for a photo with a young Swans supporter. Photo: Getty Images

Andrew Ireland wasn’t sure what to expect of Lance Franklin as he waited with coach John Longmire for the superstar footballer to drop by one afternoon last January.

Like any other football fan, the Swans chief executive had watched Franklin’s career from afar, with all its colour on and off the field, but had little idea of the real man. He and Longmire suspected Franklin and manager Liam Pickering wanted to sound out playing for the Swans, but they were cautious. There was a hard-won culture to protect, a playing group to balance and finances to consider. For “Buddy” Franklin to join the Swans would be, after all, the biggest - and potentially most fraught - recruitment in the club’s history, the 1995 signing of Tony Lockett included.

“He was wearing jeans and a T-shirt, he had a cup of tea - my wife had made some scones - and the four of us had a good long meeting in my dining room,” Ireland recalls.

“Lance was impressive. He’s a big man. He’s got a charismatic personality and a strong presence. But it’s not like he burst into the room. He was a bit nervous, a bit understated if anything.”

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There was a bit of playing hard-to-get. Ireland and Longmire were not about to fawn. They’d earlier agreed not to try to convince Franklin to move. They wanted to know he was genuine, that he wanted to join the Swans for good reasons and would bring something positive to club.

“He made very clear he wanted to join us,” Ireland says. “He said ‘I’ve played with Hawthorn, I’ve enjoyed it and I want to explore this option’

Up there with the best: Franklin takes a mark during a pre-season game. Photo: Anthony Johnson

“John and I wanted him to understand the issues and I think he understood that if he didn’t sign for Hawthorn during the 2013 season he’d be under huge pressure. He had a great career going there, his parents were in Melbourne - there was a lot to consider.

“He said he just wanted make sure he had a good season with Hawthorn and take it from there.”

Over the next year, outgoing chairman Richard Colless was brought into the loop, among others, including board member Andrew McMaster, the head of the club’s finances who had to work out if Franklin was affordable, and ex-player Jason Ball, who acted as conduit between the board and football department. Co-captain Jarrad McVeigh, after consideration, gave his blessing. Those figures and a few others (including Ireland’s wife, Kelly) brilliantly kept football’s biggest secret until it was revealed - sensationally, as nearly everyone had expected Franklin to join expansion club Greater Western Sydney - shortly after Hawthorn won the flag last September.

On Saturday, in an ironic twist, Franklin makes his debut for the Swans against the Giants at Homebush's Spotless Stadium in what is now a derby with added spice. But, if his career so far is any barometer, Franklin - armed with an apparently new, straighter kicking style and a surreal nine-year $10 million deal - will probably have the last word.

“I have memories of walking out on to the field next to someone that gets so much attention but adds so much presence to the team. It kind of makes you stand a foot taller,” says Swans midfielder Josh Kennedy, a former teammate at Hawthorn.

“There are very few players who command that sort of presence. Goodesy [Adam Goodes] is one. Whenever you run onto the field with those guys, you’re running out with someone capable of doing something really special.”

McVeigh, too, is confident in what Franklin will add.

“Since he’s been at the footy club, the way he’s carried himself and bought into what we’re about has been really pleasing,” McVeigh says.

“The way he’s trained and offered advice to the young forwards has been really good for us. He’s just been one of the boys.”

When McVeigh was asked about signing Franklin he considered it would mean losing players - later including Shane Mumford and Jed Lamb to GWS - and adding to a famously united side a player with a huge profile on huge money.

“If a player can get a lot of money, good luck to him. We couldn’t care less what a player earns, as long as he does the right things by the club, stands for what we want to stand for,” the co-captain says. “For me, it was an overwhelming feeling of support for him to come here. He wanted to play at this footy club and we were lucky enough to be able to accommodate him. He’s here for the long haul and we’re all pushing in the same direction, towards winning premierships.”

Giants player Stephen Gilham, who played six seasons including the 2008 premiership year with Franklin at the Hawks – and could mark his old teammate on Saturday – believes the Swans will have a dependable colleague.

“On the field, obviously, he was a freak player. But off the field, I found him to be generous and warm,” Gilham says.

“I think in the football environment he feels comfortable. It’s what he comes back to. But - and you see it this week with him not speaking to media - he’s not that confident with all the other stuff. He wasn’t comfortable with people talking about him. It’s interesting, I guess, he had a real swagger on the ground. But off the ground he couldn’t be more different.

“I was there when he was the biggest thing in Melbourne, when we won the flag on the back of him kicking 100 goals. He couldn’t really go anywhere without being recognised. For the most part, he was good about it and he’d stop to talk to people and be nice. But it’s pretty hard to live like that for too long.”

Gilham isn’t surprised Franklin chose to play in Sydney, though he hoped it would be at GWS.

So did Kevin Sheedy, though he denies Franklin’s decision hurt. The GWS board member and ex-coach says of the player with “a bit of Hollywood”: “For me, it’s about the game. To have another superstar in Sydney is a great achievement for the AFL. When I see Buddy run out there I’ll be happy because we’ll have him playing in two of our games this season without paying him a dollar.”

Unlike the Swans, whose judgement in signing Franklin for nine years is the subject of conjecture. According to one one insider, there's a saying doing the rounds in football circles lately: “There are three things you can count on: death, taxes and Buddy won’t play 10 years."

Sheedy says: “Tony Lockett, Paul Roos, Barry Hall - none played 10 years [after age 27]. From that point of view, Buddy won’t either. But that’s their business, not ours.”

The Giants withdrew their $1.2 million per year offer over six years on October 1, after reportedly being told by Pickering that Franklin was joining the Swans. The Swans maintain they did not outbid GWS. Rather, the player approached them and their own calculations meant a longer-term contract was their only option, says Ireland, who years earlier had signed Brisbane star Alastair Lynch to a 10-year deal.

“I devised the contract and the reality is - and we said this to Lance early on - we couldn’t pay him in his first year even what he was getting at Hawthorn in his last year. We thought, if that’s the starting position, if you only do a six-year contract, to catch up what he’s given up in the early years, you might have a year where it’s $2 million. When we analysed it, the risk was better to go a bit longer and spread it out, which he was happy to do.

“I have no regrets at all about the Franklin deal. The reality is that it will be tested over the journey, in its totality. People will speculate along the way. But it should be judged at the end.

“I think by any measure, as a player who’s kicked 60 goals six or seven years in a row, he’s pretty unique. I’ve said to people lately ‘If Lance Franklin came to you and said he wanted to play at your club, what would you say? I think he will be a very good player for us.”

8 comments so far

And the match isn't even on TV in Melbourne! Who decides these things? Doesn't the AFL realise that most Swans fans actually live in Melbourne??

Commenter

Marg

Location

Brunswick

Date and time

March 14, 2014, 10:55PM

That's a typical Melbourne nonsense Marg. More people see the Sydney Swans week in, week out here than South could ever manage. For once lose the Melbourne/Sydney cringe and give credit where credit is due.

Commenter

eyeroll

Location

Sydney

Date and time

March 15, 2014, 3:13PM

Have you seen how many supporters turn up to their games in Melbourne? Any way that's not the point - what I'm saying is Ch 7 should put more Swans games on Melbourne TV,

Commenter

Marg

Location

Brunswick

Date and time

March 15, 2014, 6:53PM

Sure, then why mention supporter numbers if that's not your point?

Commenter

eyeroll

Location

Sydney

Date and time

March 17, 2014, 12:26PM

Well, I am both nervous and excited about this experiment - unsure how it will go.

Commenter

Howe Synnott

Location

Sydney

Date and time

March 15, 2014, 8:02AM

GO THE BLOODS!

Commenter

bloody0buddy

Location

sydney

Date and time

March 15, 2014, 12:09PM

It amazes me, Franklin contacts the Swans saying he wants to move their. Straight away Swans have the upper hand in negotiations yet they end up offering a 10 year deal. I think he would have gone on a 5 or 7 year deal at the same yearly payment.

Commenter

Go Blues

Date and time

March 15, 2014, 1:12PM

Its already working, like it did with plugger and Hall - all of the headlines have been about buddy, no pressure on any of the other Swans, lots of interest generated in the early season which in Sydney is not normally the case .... we like to see them winning before we get on them ;)